Ornamental marine species culture in the coral triangle: seahorse demonstration project in the Spermonde Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Ornamental marine species ('OMS') provide valuable income for developing nations in the Indo-Pacific Coral Triangle, from which most of the specimens are exported. OMS culture can help diversify livelihoods in the region, in support of management and conservation efforts to reduce destructive fishing and collection practices that threaten coral reef and seagrass ecosystems. Adoption of OMS culture depends on demonstrating its success as a livelihood, yet few studies of OMS culture exist in the region. We present a case study of a land-based culture project for an endangered seahorse (Hippocampus barbouri) in the Spermonde Islands, Sulawesi, Indonesia. The business model demonstrated that culturing can increase family income by seven times. A Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis indicated good collaboration among diverse stakeholders and opportunities for culturing non-endangered species and for offshoot projects, but complicated permitting was an issue as were threats of market flooding and production declines. The OMS international market is strong, Indonesian exporters expressed great interest in cultured product, and Indonesia is the largest exporting country for H. barbouri. Yet, a comparison of Indonesia ornamental marine fish exports to fish abundance in a single local market indicated that OMS culture cannot replace fishing livelihoods. Nevertheless, seahorse and other OMS culture can play a role in management and conservation by supplementing and diversifying the fishing and collecting livelihoods in the developing nations that provide the majority of the global OMS

The effect of mechanical expressions on red algae yield, Kappaphycus alvarezii L. Doty

M.S. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2012.Includes bibliographical references.Commercial seaweed cultivation has been introduced to numerous parts of the world. Significant research is dedicated to its improvement of cultivation and processing. Kappaphycus alvarezii, a macroalgae, has spread throughout Southeast Asia and has been cultivated in many regions. The reliable cash income supports many coastal fishing communities. Separation of the solid-liquid fractions of fresh seaweed may provide additional value to seaweed farmers. Seaweed prices fluctuate due to variations in seaweed quality at the farm level. In addition, seaweed mostly grows better during the rainy season when there is a lack of sunlight to facilitate drying required for trade. If the seaweed can be immediately processed without drying and two products are obtained from liquid and solid separation, it will save space for drying and cost for adding new drying infrastructures. The liquid is used for agriculture fertilizer and the dry cake is used as an aquatic feed additive. Six factors were studied to improve liquid extraction with mechanical expression using a fractional factorial design with two levels. The high levels of factors are coded +1 and lower levels coded as-1. The lower level Comitrol™ blade space (1 mm blade space), low level initial temperature (22 oC), low initial weight (20 gram) and high level final pressure (2800 Pa) gave the highest liquid recovery from Kappaphycus alvarezii. Speed of pressing and time held at final pressure had negligible effect on liquid recovery. The economic analyses showed that a 250Mg per year solid liquid processing facility is a profitable investment given a Minimum Attractive Rate of Return of 20%, because the Internal Rate of Return was shown to be 30.23%. An increase of 10% in variable costs over ten years decreases net cash flow (-$100.17); but an increased the selling price of 2.5% restored the IRR to 30.23%

Large-scale coral reef rehabilitation after blast fishing in Indonesia

The severely degraded condition of many coral reefs worldwide calls for active interventions to rehabilitate their physical and biological structure and function, in addition to effective management of fisheries and no-take reserves. Rehabilitation efforts to stabilize reef substratum sufficiently to support coral growth have been limited in size. We documented a large coral reef rehabilitation in Indonesia aiming to restore ecosystem functions by increasing live coral cover on a reef severely damaged by blast fishing and coral mining. The project deployed small, modular, open structures to stabilize rubble and to support transplanted coral fragments. Between 2013 to 2015, approximately 11,000 structures covering 7,000 m2were deployed over 2 ha of a reef at a cost of US$174,000. Live coral cover on the structures increased from less than 10% initially to greater than 60% depending on depth, deployment date and location, and disturbances. The mean live coral cover in the rehabilitation area in October 2017 was higher than reported for reefs in many other areas in the Coral Triangle, including marine protected areas, but lower than in the no-take reference reef. At least 42 coral species were observed growing on the structures. Surprisingly, during the massive coral bleaching in other regions during the 2014–2016 El Niño–Southern Oscillation event, bleaching in the rehabilitation area was less than 5% cover despite warm water (≥30°C). This project demonstrates that coral rehabilitation is achievable over large scales where coral reefs have been severely damaged and are under continuous anthropogenic disturbances in warming waters